Page 68 of Victoria's Discovery

His white brows shot up then snapped together, but he immediately silenced his footsteps. Catching up until he was keeping pace with her, he sent her a questioning look.

“What are you doing that we need to be stealthy?”

Victoria hesitated, biting her lip, but honestly, she was a bit in over her head here and could use the help.

“Okay, so there’s this female. She gives me all the bad vibes so I’m following her.”

“What did she do? Did she threaten you?”

“Er, so, she hasn’ttechnicallydone anything wrong.” At his confused look she raised a finger. “But! She used to have horns and now she doesn’t, and I caught her talking with a guy that was put on the watch list, and she hissed at me. Rudely!Andshe was headed toward the restricted section which she’s not even supposed to know exists and… hey, wait. Why wereyouin the restricted section?”

He looked away from her and his expression shut down a little, like a veil falling over his face.

Oh no. No, no.

Feeling sick, she stopped walking and swallowed hard. “Vi’kail? Tell me you’re not a bad guy here. Please?”

He couldn’t be, could he? She’d know if he was a bad person.

A shadow passed through his pale, purple eyes and a muscle ticked in his jaw as he stared down at her silently. Her chest tightened. Dread and denial turned her stomach to stone. She didn’t think he was going to answer, but he sighed and slowly raised a hand to twist one of her curls around his finger.

“I’m not plotting against the complex. That I promise you. I wouldn’t compromise your safety.” Meeting her gaze, something like sorrow passed through his eyes and his expression hardened, lips twisting in a cold, humorless smile. “But I am a bad man.”

Before she could say anything—though what she would’ve said to that, she had no idea—he gave her curl a gentle tug then released it and started off down the hallway again.

“Come, little flower, before we lose your quarry.”

Confused, intrigued, uncertain, oddly aroused, and a whole lot of other things she couldn’t even begin to put names to, Vee blinked out of her stupor and hurried to catch up with him.

* * *

Twenty minutes—anda whole lot of staring blankly ahead as though the answers she needed to understand maddeningly enigmatic men would magically appear in the air before her—later, they managed to find Catty again.

“There she is. Quiet now.” With an arm across her chest, he guided her back from the doorway.

Peeking around him into the room beyond, Victoria glimpsed Catty pacing near the back wall. It looked like a conference room turned storage with unused furniture in stacks and groupings throughout. Leaning back, she scanned their surroundings and realized they were in a part of the building she didn’t recognize.

“Where are we?” she whispered.

“Twelfth floor, but I haven’t been to this section.”

“Me, either.”

She’d barely gotten the words out when Vi’kail whipped his head to the side to look back in the direction from which they’d come.

“Someone’s comin’.”

Heart skipping a beat, she searched for a place to hide and pointed anxiously to a door ten feet or so away. It was in the direction of whoever was approaching, but it was also their only option.

“Go.”

Running on tiptoe, Victoria darted to the door and quickly pressed her hand to the screen, holding her breath and internally freaking the fuck out as the stupid thing took its sweet ass time.

Finally, it hissed open. Jerking Vi’kail in behind her, she strained to maneuver around his body in the small space then slapped the screen on the inside wall to close it.

A seemingly endless second later and they were sealed in darkness with barely enough room to breathe.

“What the crik is this?” he muttered lowly. “I’ve barely room to stand upright.”

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